John Burns, famous
for his work with Genesis, Jethro Tull and Burning Spear, started as tea-boy
and tape operator at Morgan Studios in 1965. At this time Morgan Studios were
doing all of the recordings for Island
Records (founded by Chris Blackwell in 1959 and named in tribute to Alec
Waugh's 1956 novel, Island in the Sun), who didn't have their own studio.

In his education on-the-job,
Johnnie took his cue from engineers like Andy Johns (brother of Glyn Johns),
whose approach to engineering was to enable the artists to realise their musical
vision without technical details hampering the creative process. As a result
he soon achieved a reputation for being a 'musicians' engineer'.

Some of the
artists Johnny worked with
during this period include Humble Pie, Jethro Tull, Spooky Tooth,
Blodwyn Pig, Ten Years After, Quintessence, David Bowie, King
Crimson, Donovan and he even did a rough pre-mix of The Rolling
Stones' Hyde Park Concert, which was later, as Johnnie puts it 'mixed
properly'.

Working on the first few
Jethro Tull albums straddled
this formative period in Johnnie's career. The albums This Was (as tea-boy),
Stand Up and Benefit (as assistant engineer), which were all done
very close together. Following these releases, in 1970, Tull offered Johnnie
the chance to go on tour with them, and Johnnie welcomed the chance to branch
out in the world of Rock and Roll, and accepted the offer heartily.

So during 1970, a great period
for live music, and festivals particularly, Johnnie helped out with many acts
including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Johnnie Winter, and at the Isle
of Wight Festival when Procul Harum, The Doors and Miles Davis also played
on the same bill as many of the acts that had played at Woodstock in 1969.

After extensive touring in the the
US
and on the European continent, Jethro Tull returned to the UK and
they recorded the Aqualung album, with Johnnie engineering.

During a period as freelance
Engineer with Island, Johnnie would often get a call to stand in for another
engineer to work on sessions with acts including Traffic, Mott the Hoople, Fairport Convention, Curved
Air, Deep Purple, Marc Bolan and T.Rex, Jeff Beck, and John Martyn
for the sessions that became the classic Solid Air album. Credits recorded in
this period include Alexis Corner, Jimmy Cliff and Toots and the Maytal.

Meanwhile in 1972, Progressive
Rock luminaries, Genesis,
were experiencing some trouble in finding a suitably skilled engineer whilst
working on their Foxtrot album. Two successive engineers had been brought
in, and both found they couldn't cope and had thrown in the towel. Finally the
name of an up-and-coming engineer called John Burns was mooted.

After wading in
with razor-blades at the ready (for tape-splicing) and often
commandeering the talk-back mic, Johnnie made a such a great impression
on the band that they asked him to produce the following album,
Selling England by the Pound.
So began their co-production relationship, which was to last
for a total of three albums, including Genesis Live
and the band's magnum opus, The Lamb lies down on Broadway.

Amid the sweltering heat, ants crawling out
of the mixing-desk and strong local smoke, Johnnie went off to work at Ginger
Baker's studio with the late Fela
Ransome-Kutiin Nigeria in 1974.
He remembers recording jam sessions where signs would be held up marking each
minute up to the maximum of 17 minutes (because that was all that could fit on
one side of a Long-Playing record), the musicians would look up and when the 17
minute was very nearly over, they'd all stop together as one, right on cue.

These
recordings
would involve no splice editing, just the raw energy of the
improvisations, and that would be the track – multi-tracked and
with a sound totally new to Johnnie's 'gob-smacked' western ears.
Some of the guitars would have broken strings repaired with a knot
halfway down the neck, so that that string could only be played from
that point or higher, but the total sound and impact of the music
remained unaffected.

'...
There were other
guys like Burning Spear... where it was an education in itself trying
to work out what the songs were about. Because, culturally, the
colour of your skin made a big difference. It wasn't your story. It
was about somebody else's oppression...'

-
Paul Simonon,
bassist from The Clash.

In 1975 Johnnie mixed a dub
version of Burning
Spear's Garvey's Ghost, the band paying him tribute by naming a song
after him, John Burns Skank, a dub version of Live Good as a mark of their thanks and respect.

During
a brief
period as owner of Escape Studios in the late 70's, Johnnie recorded
with artists including Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker – with bassist
John Porter (Roxy Music), Motorhead, and also Gus Isidore- more
recently
acclaimed for his guitar work with Seal’s 2nd album.

Photographer
Nigel
Gray visited Escape at this time. It was just another day in the
studio, and Johnnie can be seen here in his natural environment,
sporting a '70's beard and tight
pull-over, his production style suggesting a young
precursor to the affectionate madman we know and love today.

When
80's trends
seemed to take the heart and soul out of engineering for Johnnie, he
found studio work less attractive and became something of a recluse
from the point of view of the industry.

However,
digital
technology in the 21st Century has progressed to the point
where the creative spirit comes first once again.

Johnnie's
latest
projects have therefore seen a return to what he loves best, which is
working with people, not machines, with the aim simply to make good
music.

Nurtured
from its origins as the bedroom studio brainchild of two experienced and gifted
gigging rock musicians, JEBO
has grown to a 5-piece and a powerful live act, now with two astonishing albums,
both produced by John, mixed by Ben Findlay from Peter Gabriel's Real
World Studios, and mastered at Loud!
by an old friend of Johnnie's from Trident Studios, John Dent.